About Sculpture

HANS ARP & CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI

EXHIBITION Apr 27 — Aug 31, 2013

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Prometheus, ca. 1926-29

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1926-29

17 x 23 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Princesse X dans l'atelier (in the studio), ca. 1923

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1923

13,7 x 16,7 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Vue d'Ensemble de l'Atelier, ca. 1923-1924

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1923-1924

23,8 x 29,9 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Vue d'Atelier, ca. 1925 - 1926

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1925

12,7 x 17,8 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Léda, 1921

gelatin silver print, mounted, printed ca. 1921

16,7 x 22,6 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Torse de Jeune Femme / Young Woman's Torso, ca. 1921-1925

gelatin silver contact print, tip-mounted on modern board, printed ca. 1921-1925

16,9 x 12,1 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Mademoiselle Pogany II, Profile View, ca. 1920

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1920

23,7 x 17,9 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Les Fleurs / The Flowers, ca. 1930

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1930

13,4 x 29,8 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Mademoiselle Pogany I, Frontal View, ca. 1920 -1921

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1920-1921

23,2 x 17 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Danaide, Profile View, ca. 1913

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1921

23,8 x 18,1 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Narcissus, 1922

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1922

22,6 x 17,1 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

View of the Studio: Mlle Pogany II, ca. 1920

gelatin silver print,mounted, printed ca. 1920

28,6 x 26,6 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Lizica Codreanu dancing in Brancusi's studio, costume by Irina Codreanu, ca. 1923-1924

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1923-1924

23,7 x 18 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

CONSTANTIN BRANCUSI (1876–1957)

Lizica Codreanu dancing in Brancusi's studio, costume by Irina Codreanu, ca. 1923-1924

gelatin silver print, printed ca. 1923-1924

23,8 x 17,9 cm

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

HANS ARP (1886–1966)

Zu den Wolken gerichtet / In the Direction of Clouds, 1961

bronze, cast 0/5, Noack 1997

39,5 x 22,8 x 17,5 cm

© Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V., Rolandswert; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

HANS ARP (1886–1966)

Ganymède, 1954

bronze, polished patina, cast by Susse foundry, Paris, ca. 1957-58

21,3 x 33 x 24,2 cm

© Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V., Rolandswert; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

HANS ARP (1886–1966)

Der Rosenfresser / The Rose-Eater, 1963

bronze, cast 5/5, Rudier 1982

14,5 x 19 x 14,5 cm

© Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V., Rolandswert; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

HANS ARP (1886–1966)

Gähnende Muschel / Yawning Shell, 1964-1965

bronze, cast 5/5, Rudier 1982

21,5 x 34,5 x 22 cm

© Stiftung Hans Arp und Sophie Taeuber-Arp e.V., Rolandswert; VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2013 / Courtesy Kicken Berlin

Sculpture is the twofold focus of Kicken Berlin’s spring exhibitions. Sculptors Constantin Brancusi and Hans Arp represent pathbreaking, abstract tendencies in sculpture of the twentieth century. Unifying both oeuvres is the extreme concentration and reduction of sculptural expressions and the continual study of plastic forms in light and space. Photographs of Brancusi’s sculpture in the atelier and Arp’s harmonious and biomorphic plastic figures create a framework for a visual treatise on body and figure. The interaction of sculpture and photography as a visual transformation of plastic bodies happens primarily through the manipulation of light. Through photography we experience sculpture anew. Brancusi made this standard his own. He showed an early interest in photography’s possibilities, which he idiosyncratically implemented as early as 1905 to congenially illustrate his works. He received instruction in camera technique and darkroom work from no less that Man Ray. The sculptor found that the photographic medium afforded him new, superior perspectives on his own work. The effects of light and space were essential; they exaggerated and transformed the pieces, a “metamorphosis of light” (Christoph Brockhaus), and expressed their complexity. Light and shadow became independent modes of expression. In addition to the individual works, the sculptural assemblages in the atelier were also important, as here the work and the atmosphere of the atelier came together in a magic and surreal world. Hans Arp, literary figure, illustrator, painter, and sculptor, greatly shaped the course of art in the first half of the twentieth century. He was among the founders of Dada Zurich and exhibited with André Breton’s circle of Parisian surrealists. Arp related how his early nature studies influenced his essential and effective design elements over the course of decades: “In Ascona I did (...) drawings of (...) roots, grasses and stones (...). Finally, I simplified these forms and united their essence in fluid ovals, symbols of the metamorphosis and becoming of the bodies” (Hans Arp, Unsern täglichen Traum…, 1955). The “fluid oval” became one of the characteristic shapes of Arp’s fluid-compact sculptures. His late sculptural work is dedicated to both natural things as well as the idea of man, expressed in heads and figures. Essential to both is the idea of transformation or metamorphosis, to which Arp was introduced by Wassily Kandinsky in 1911.